Friday Scoop: Paying Respects

Welcome to the Morning Scoop for Friday, August 17, 2018. The world lost a great yesterday, and we’re not getting over it anytime soon.

Learning how to write a tribute to a late artist takes a lot of passion, and a little craft. That’s why we started our music journalism program, designed to help students get ahead in reporting what’s happening in soul, rock, pop, and every other scene you can imagine.

‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin: In Memoriam

A natural woman. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

It was announced this morning that the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, lost her battle with advanced pancreatic cancer at her home in Detroit, Michigan. She was 76 years old.

It was her iconic Atlantic years, beginning in 1966, that would see her release hits such as “I’ve Never Loved a Man The Way That I Love You,” “Chain of Fools,” and “Think,” and become a superstar.

Her songs also paved the way for activism among the counterculture of the US in the 1960s. On her 1967 hit “Respect,” she wasn’t just singing about reverence for one another during a tumultuous, racially charged time in American history. She was demanding it.

NYU Medical School Will Now Have Free Tuition

The board of trustees at New York University School of Medicine announced yesterday that it would no longer require current and future students to pay tuition. With a goal to address the high cost of pursuing a career in medicine, NYU believes graduating debt-free will allow doctors “walk out unencumbered,” and “help people live better quality lives.”

While the new plan covers the $55,000 yearly tuition, many medical students still spend upwards of $29,000 per year on living expenses. The plan affects 350 current students, and 93 incoming first-year students.

West Virginia Just Impeached Its Entire Supreme Court

This past Monday, 11 articles in West Virginia’s House of Delegates passed through impeaching all four Supreme Court justices. The judges consisted of two liberals, Chief Justice Margaret Workman and Justice Robin Davis, and two conservatives, Justice Allen Loughry and Justice Beth Walker. Impeaching one judge is nearly impossible; impeaching an entire court is unthinkable. So how did we get here?

Local journalists uncovered the excessive spending of the justices, with each spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on office decor, furniture, and other nonessential items. They are also being charged with not holding each other accountable for their excessive spending as well as letting themselves get paid more than they are legally allowed.

According to Business Insider, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stated that “[The] approval of the first generic version of the most-widely prescribed epinephrine auto-injector in the U.S. is part of our longstanding commitment to advance access to lower cost, safe and effective generic alternatives once patents and other exclusivities no longer prevent approval.”

Friday’s Morning Scoop was made possible by Meaghan Lanctot, Erin Whitten, Nicole Kitchens, and the CMN Staff. It’s time to go back to school. We can almost smell it now…empty red Solo cups and stale pizza. Living the dream for eight easy payments of $25,000.

Are you looking for digital journalism training and experience? Are you a journalism major who wants to take your career to the next level? CMN’s Digital Journalism course gives you real-time experience, intense feedback on your writing, exposure to journalism influencers and mentors, and a great place to display your work. You can get academic credit too. Check out the Digital Journalism Course here.